In Her Own Words
by tiduscanfly
Summary: Maxine Batchelder is an ordinary girl. But when a friend asks her "Wouldn't it be cool to fly?" she starts to get ideas. When her mind meets paper, what will happen?
1. Day One

**I got this idea in my head and I actually really really like it… I just sort of wanted to connect all of those wingless fanfictions to the winged. Plus I wanted to do something original, and I think this would probably fall into that category… Anyway, enjoy!! I'll probably update about twice a week. Oh, and FYI, the name "Arik" is pronounced as "Erik". And Ari, Max, and Ella are all siblings. They all have Jeb as a father and Dr. Martinez as a mother. And, sadly, Max's full name is Maxine Batchelder. They're all human- but the wings do exist in a way. **

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"Max!" My little brother Arik jumped onto my bed. I groaned and stuffed my head underneath my pillow. "Daddy says you have to go to school!"

I groaned as I remembered what the date was. September 3rd. The first day of school. High school, to be exact. I pushed Arik off of me and groggily herded him out of the room. I hated that kid so much. It took me less than five minutes to get dressed. I still looked like I'd just stepped out of a wind tunnel, though.

"Max!" A slightly older female voice called my name as I stepped out the front door equipped with a piece of toast.

"Hey Tif." I grinned. We started to walk in the direction of our K-12 school. "Or is it Krystal today?" Tiffany had a hyphened name but always went by one or the other.

"Nah, it's Tiffany today." She said cheerfully. She dove into a lecture about birds that I pretended to be paying attention to.

Tiffany was my eleven-year-old neighbor. She was three years younger than me but we still got on pretty well. I'd known her since I was five years old and she never ceased to amaze me with how much of a chatterbox she was. Or how she hacked computers with speed and accuracy _while _talking.

The girl's got some amazingly strange talents.

"Don't you think it would be cool to fly, Max?" She asked, staring up at the clouds with a blissful look on her mocha-colored face. I considered this for a moment.

"Yeah." I agreed. "That would be pretty awesome." Tiffany glanced around and then nudged me- something she tended to do a _lot_.

"Ma-ax, it's Ni-ick." She teased in a singsong voice. I rolled my eyes.

"So what? He's my best friend." I said exasperatedly.

"Mhm, whatever you say." She said dismissively. She winked at me and ran ahead.

"Hey, Max." Nick caught up to me and matched his step to mine. It was so _normal _to be with him, how could Tiffany think I liked him?

"Hey." I smiled. "What's Jeff up to?" I glanced back at a house we'd just passed. Nick shrugged.

"Best not to get involved with whatever it is." He advised. I nodded in silent agreement. "You babysitting today?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, three to seven." I replied. "Why?"

"Just wondering." Boy, he sure was being a chatterbox- for Nick, anyway. No sarcasm there, people. Nick and Tiffany were as opposite as opposites could get.

We walked in comfortable silence the rest of the way to school.

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The first day of school always seemed kind of useless to me. Your teachers just explain what you'll be learning over the course of the year. I think I might've dozed off a bit listening to my new English teacher…

I'd never been so happy to reach lunch.

I grabbed a seat next to Nick and across from Jeff. They were talking about some guy thing, but Jeff smiled at me as I sat down. Nick wasn't much of a smiler.

"So where were you this morning?" I demanded, glaring at Jeff. He grinned.

"Oh, just working on something." His sightless blue eyes gleamed with mischief.

To explain the sightless eyes, his parents were real psychos. They decided it was a good idea to get their two-year-old son laser eye surgery- on both eyes at once. You know how it is with laser eye surgery- it doesn't always have a happy ending. Meaning Jeff became blind for life.

Great parents, huh?

"Like I said, best not to get involved in whatever it is." Nick whispered in my ear. I gave him a "no kidding" expression. Jeff was probably inventing some new bomb, what with his being a pyro and all.

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I walked from school to a small red house surrounded by trees. Two young children were playing together on the lawn while their father leaned on his car, watching them with a smile on his face. He noticed me and beckoned me over.

"Keep an eye on Zephyr for me, will you?" He asked. "He's been up to something lately and I'm still trying to figure out what it is." I nodded. "Oh, and we've been growing some strawberries in the back yard. They're a bit out of season but they're still good. Ariel's been dying to pick some. You can let her if you want but make sure she doesn't pick too many."

"Alright. Good luck at your new job." I gave him a grin. He returned it and stepped into his car.

"Max, Max, Max!" A blonde six-year-old girl squealed, skipping over to give me a big hug. Her eight-year-old brother stood nearby, grinning.

"Hey Ariel." I said cheerfully, ruffling her blonde curls. "Hey Zephyr!" I called to her brother. He waved in return.

Not to sound too full of myself or anything, but Ariel and Zephyr just adored me. I'd been babysitting them for two years, but I hadn't needed to for about six months after their dad lost their job. They were the sweetest kids in the world. Blonde, blue-eyed containers of happiness.

Plus Ariel can read people's faces so well I wouldn't be surprised if she could read minds.

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I dropped into the chair in front of my desk later that evening. It was only the first day of school, so it wasn't like I had any homework. So I just sat there replaying the busy day in my head.

_"Do you think it would be cool to fly?"_

Tiffany's words echoed through my head again and again. But even stranger, my horrible name popped in a couple of times.

_Maxine Batchelder._

God, I hated my name _so _much. I'd always wanted a different name. Something more interesting, more unique. Something… powerful. I mean, I didn't mind being called Max. I actually really liked it. It fit me. But not _Maxine_.

And just like that, an idea started to form in my head. People in my life drifted in front of my eyes. Arik, Tiffany, Nick, Jeff, Zephyr, Ariel…

_"Do you think it would be cool to fly?"_

I thought about something my mom had always said to me when I was younger before something really big happened.

_"Get ready for the biggest ride of your life…"_

The biggest ride… the biggest, the best…

The maximum.

And just like that, it all clicked together. Excitement flashed through me as I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote:

_**Congratulations. The fact that you're reading this means you've taken one giant step closer to surviving till your next birthday. Yes, **_**you**_**, standing there leafing through these pages. **_**Do not put this book down.**_** I'm dead serious- your life could depend on it.**_

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**Do you like it? Review, tell me what you think. Is it a good idea or is it lame? I really like it, but I want to know your opinions. And if you can't think of anything to say in a review, say "It's good" or "It's lame" or "It's okay". **


	2. Wolves

**I really really really hated the title for this, so I changed it to one that my friend Liz suggested, which I like A LOT better. I wasn't expecting this to take so long, sorry. The second chapter of a story is always difficult for me... Anyway, on wif ze story!!!**

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"Arik!" I called up the stairs. "Dinner!" I waited for a reply. When I didn't hear one, I went up to his room and opened the door.

He was sitting on his bed playing his gameboy, madly mashing the buttons and tilting the thing from side to side. I snatched it from his hands. "Dinner." I spat in his face. He frowned and crawled off of his bed.

His whole room was decorated with wolves. His bed, his pillow, his beanbag chair, _everything_. The kid had an obsession.

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"Hey F-Nick!" I grinned as I caught up to Nick on the walk to school the next morning. He gave me a weird look.

"Fnick?" He asked. I shook my head to dismiss it.

I'd been up nearly all night working on my new story. I typically wasn't much of a writer but I was slowly becoming addicted to Maximum Ride.

Which would be the reason I almost called Nick "Fang".

"Hey Fmax." Jeff joined us, obviously having heard our three word conversation. I punched him lightly.

"Shut up." I mumbled.

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"Got any fives?" Zephyr asked me, trying to sneak a peek at my cards. I pulled them away from him and passed him one. For whatever reason Zephyr was in love with Go Fish. Don't ask me why.

"Hey, what's your sister up to?" I looked around, suddenly realizing Ariel wasn't in the room. He shrugged. "One second, I need to know where she is." I laid my cards face-down on the floor and stood up. I checked the kitchen and bathroom first.

"Ariel?" I called. Nothing. I sighed. "I'll be right back, Zephyr." I called as I opened their front door. I glanced down the street to see if she'd wandered off.

Starting to feel a little edgy, I made my way to their backyard. Ariel wasn't there, but I guessed it was her who had left a half-filled basket of strawberries on the ground.

I started to trudge into the woods behind the house. Ariel was a little nature-lover, so I really wasn't too surprised to find her climbing a tree not too far in with Celeste, her stuffed angel bear.

I sighed. "Ariel, come back inside." I reached up and she grabbed my hands and jumped into my arms. I let out a little 'oof' and put her on the ground. She took my hand and led me back inside.

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I sat back at my desk at home that night, rereading my story. I'd typed it all up on my laptop and kept a written copy. The last thing I wanted was to lose it. I was having trouble coming up with a plot. I had the basics, but there isn't much of a story without a conflict. So I wracked my brain for ideas until I started to grasp something that could be worthwhile.

Arik wouldn't mind being a wolf-boy, would he?

I grinned and typed:

**Next to me, Angel froze.**

**Startled, I stared down at her, and in the next second, men with wolfish muzzles, huge canines, and reddish, glinting eyes dropped out of the sky like spiders. Erasers! And it wasn't a dream.**

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**Yeah, I like to italicize and bold the quotes from the book, but the program I'm currently using doesn't allow that :( So I centered it as well (As you can obviously see...) So... review? I'm not gonna' force you to review, but still... yeah...**


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